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JS Bach: Cantata No. 56, Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen

Haydn: Symphony No. 49 in F minor, La Passione

The Orchestra of St John’s promised much, but delivered less in this short concert of eighteenth and twentieth century works.

Over the course of three concerts at Kings Place, the orchestra – under the direction of founder and artistic director John Lubbock – presented contemporary pieces by English composers, solo cantatas by JS Bach, and early Haydn symphonies.

Sally Beamish’s The Day Dawn draws its inspiration from the Shetland Islands, where the traditional fiddle tune Da Day Dawn was played to mark the advent of longer daytimes. At sunrise on New Year’s Day a fiddler called at every house in the neighbourhood, playing the tune. For Beamish, it’s plaintive but hopeful quality reflected thoughts and feelings on the death of the daughter of a close friend. The work skilfully develops the simple melody – only occasionally sounded out in full on solo violin – against an evolving web of string sound. The work as a whole is strongly reminiscent of Peter Maxwell Davies’s Orkney-inspired oeuvre, but rather lacks a distinctive voice.

Bach’s Cantata No. 56 is a simple but affecting work. It is also one of Bach’s earliest works for solo baritone. It was a pity therefore that soloist David Stout failed to do it full justice. His voice sounded tight and constricted throughout, and despite fine German diction, he never seemed fully engaged with the work. Oboist Chris O’Neal put in a fine performance on solo oboe d’amore in the second aria, and the St John’s chorus rounded off the work with a fine-voiced chorale. But their bit-part appearance couldn’t save the performance from it’s so-so appeal.

There were no great revelations either in Haydn’s Symphony No. 49. A moody ‘Sturm und Drang’ work, the symphony opens with a mournful Adagio (which Haydn reportedly asked to be played at his own funeral) and hardly strays from minor keys. Some noticeable scratchiness and gruffness in the strings spoiled the first movement. These problems resolved themselves in the ensuing movements, and the final Presto caught the flavour of Haydn’s storm and stress phase. But by then impatience and indifference had already set in.

John-Pierre Joyce